After doing 3.5 miles on our morning training run (details to follow; need to catch up on my training log), Pirate and I hopped on our bikes and headed over to Lake Merritt BART to meet up with the taco truck bike tour organized by Cyrus Farivar of the California Taco Trucks blog. The turnout was great (word was that somebody counted 35 of us at one point), the weather was perfect, the food was quite tasty (mmm, tacos!) and I pretty much can't imagine having had a better time.

As we headed off from Lake Merritt BART, somebody said "This is like Critical Mass, only with less aggression and more tacos!" Sounds like a decent approach to most things: less aggression, more tacos. *grin*

Also, I continue to LOVE (omg LOVE) my bike. Talk about "makes with the zoom"! On the first leg of the route, from Lake Merritt BART over to Tacos Sinaloa, I had started out toward the middle of the pack, but soon found myself riding up front chatting with Cyrus as we rolled up International. "Wow," I said to Pirate as we were waiting for our tacos, "it's not that I'm trying to be out front — the bike just goes fast!"

Of course, by the last leg of the trip (from Nieves Cinco de Mayo ice cream at Fruitvale BART back downtown to the Trappist) I was actually trying to be in front. Partly because I know the area and so could easily navigate us back downtown, and partly because I was tired of biting my tongue not to yell Drive your bike like a vehicle, dammit! Take the whole lane when you need it! Don't putz around at traffic lights doing the "am I a vehicle? am I pedestrian? am I just going to ride through the crosswalk like neither a vehicle nor a pedestrian?" thing — take the lane, claim your space, signal your turns, and RIDE.

(Honestly, folks, if you need to make a left turn, throw your left arm out straight to signal and then move to the left into the appropriate turning lane. Whatever you do, do NOT roll up to the signal in the right-hand bike lane and then try to turn left from there. Too many bicyclists get killed at intersections already, and that's when they're riding legally. Please don't get yourself killed by doing something dumb like turning left from the right-hand lane.)

I had a chicken taco at each truck so I could compare them. My rating:1. Tacos Sinaloa2. El Grullo3. Mi Grullense4. El Ojo de Agua (note: rating for taco only; for licuados they rule)

I don't know why but every time we've tried Sinaloa it is a pit of grease and totally disgusting. I keep trying because everyone says how good it is. My fave is the one out back of Guadalajara down the block from Ojo de Agua. I was just telling Chad the other day it had been way too long since we'd had some truck, I am going to demand it for dinner.

Sounds like a decent approach to most things: less aggression, more tacos.

Ha!

I need to try Sinaloa one of these days. Most of my trips down to the taco truck area were on bus/BART, ending up right near the BART station where the concentration of trucks is quite high.

And wow: turning left from the bike lane on the right side of the road is dumb. If you end up stuck there, just cross the street, stop at the corner, wait for the light to change, and stop again. I've done that at Grand and Harrison, if only because crossing the many lanes to be able to turn left is sometimes dangerous (but I've also watched and moved into the correct lane).